The Dreadwood Tavern

Jaliafa's Bargain

The forest was silent, but Jaliafa knew that the forest would not be silent for much longer. Her Queen, the Mother of Webs had foretold the coming of innocents who would forever change the face of the Dreadwood.
The Mother of Webs, the fair and beautiful Queen of Night and Patron of her people had spoken to Jaliafa in a dream while she was meditating with the spiders in the chapel made of over a hundred thousand strands of spidersilk. These people, unlike those who had been banished once in a time that never existed, would be inexperienced in the ways of bloodshed. They would be no stranger to the sword, but Jaliafa knew that they could be manipulated in the ways the Others could not.
Change was inevitable. There would be fire and blood. But Jaliafa would ensure that she and Zyktex emerge victorious, with the blood on their hands and not on their foes’. The Dreadwood would be changing, indeed, but not in the way that any of the sun-dwellers expected.